Washington Evening Journal
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Iowa County Supervisors pass max levy resolution on second vote
By Susie Turnbull, Special to The Hometown Current
Apr. 3, 2023 10:48 am
When the vote at the March 24 meeting to approve the max levy resolution ended in a tie, the Iowa County Board of Supervisors held a special Monday morning meeting on March 27 to have another vote. This time four members were present at the meeting, and Supervisor Abby Maas attended by phone.
The resolution, which was needed to pass this fiscal year's budget to meet a deadline passed with four yes votes and the only “nay” vote coming from Maas, who at the previous meeting had stated “this is what I ran on” when voting no at that time.
Supervisor Alan Schumacher, who had voted “nay” on Friday, voted to pass the resolution but stated he wanted it on record and gave his reason for his approval this week: “I said yes, but I'd like to encourage the staff to manage their budgets closely this year and I'd like the compensation board to come up with reasonable requests next year so the tax payers can cover it.”
The requests from the Compensation Board were higher this year to try to meet the elected official's salaries of similar counties in Iowa to ours. The supervisors did not take a raise this year.
At the regular March 31 meeting, the board set the public hearing date for the $1,300,000 General Fund Loan. These notes will be used to pay for the new jail kitchen and engineer's office project. Supervisor Maas went on record to say that she didn't support the project but voted “aye” for the hearing.
The budget loan notes agreement for $6,400,000 was approved by all for Board Chair Kevin Heitshusen to sign.
After previously, and with regret, telling the Marengo Legion members they couldn't contribute any money for their new Legion Hall project, the Supervisors agreed to give them $25,000 from the Hotel/Motel tax fund. Supervisor Jon Degen stated he thought that the possibility of it being used as a more accessible polling place for the area was a good reason to support it. Heitshusen stated, “That can be a perk, but it can't be a focus.” Using it for a polling place would depend if it meets all the ADA compliance requirements.
The Supervisors also revisited ECICOG's Regional Planning Agency's discussion about giving funds to Williamsburg and North English for two road projects. The City of Williamsburg requested $507,000 and North English requested $520,000. This comes out of a fund that the county usually uses for county roads and bridges. The supervisors voted to approve the funds, with Heitshusen voting “Nay.” “This takes away money for the county to use on county roads,” he stated.